Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”
David has just escaped from Naioth in Ramah, the place where Saul himself had been prophesying. Now he runs to Jonathan with three questions pressed into one. They are not a plea for mercy. They are a claim of innocence.
A Question Only the Innocent Can Ask
David does not ask what he can do to win Saul over. He asks what he has done. God once put that same question to Cain — but it sounds very different on innocent lips.
H. L. RossierThe natural man remains under the terrible "What have you done?" once addressed to Cain (Gen. 4:10). But the man who is justified by faith, and persecuted without cause, can say like David: "What have I done?" David could speak like this only at this point in his career. Later, when his son Absalom persecuted him, he could no longer say, "What have I done?" Still later, when he had committed the serious sin of numbering the people, he had to confess to God while under His judgment: "I have sinned greatly in what I have done" (2 Sam. 24:10).
So David's claim had a date on it. Only one man ever carried it all the way to the end.
H. L. RossierBut only One could say: "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him who sent Me." Only One, at the last moment of His life, could hear the testimony of the converted criminal: "This man has done nothing wrong" (Luke 23:41).
Why David Would Not Stay at Naioth
Saul had just prophesied. That could look like a change of heart, or at least a truce. David did not take it that way.
William KellyHere we see Saul prophesying among the prophets. So a power far above his own was working through him. Was he the better for that? Much worse. We may notice that after this his progress in evil is appalling. "Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, 'What have I done? What is my guilt?'" — for David did not trust this. David did not think himself safer because Saul had been prophesying.
Running from the Place of Shelter
Not every writer reads David's flight as wisdom. One faults the very moment he chose to run.
The Bible TreasuryThe second part of David's history of trial has begun. He has become a fugitive. But what a moment to flee from Naioth! Saul's intentions were clear, but God's sheltering care and power were just as clear. How irrational unbelief is, and God may show it to our shame.
Not Reconciliation, but Certainty
David is not coming to ask for a truce. He wants the truth out in the open.
Samuel RidoutDavid had counted on Jonathan's mediation before, and for a time it had worked. So he comes to him again. He does not come now to ask his help in bringing about a reconciliation, which he knew was impossible. He comes to bring matters to a head, so that there could be no mistake about the hatred and its cause. He comes to Jonathan and asks outright what his sin against Saul is, for which Saul is seeking his life.
The Friend Who Gave Up a Throne
The man David runs to had already given up his own claim to the throne for him. Yet his story ends in a divided place.
Morrish Bible DictionaryLater he sheltered David from Saul's hatred. He proved his love in this: though he was heir to the throne, he agreed that David should be king and that he himself would be next to him. Still, Jonathan stayed with his father instead of with the one God had anointed to be His king. And with his father he died.
Summary
- Flight. David runs from Naioth, the one place where God had just shielded him. Fleeing at that moment is unbelief, and unbelief is never reasonable.
- Distrust. Saul's prophesying changed nothing. A power above Saul worked through him, and it left him worse, not better. David refused to feel safer for it.
- Innocence. The three questions are a claim, not a confession. The same question once fell on guilty Cain. The believer persecuted without cause can ask it himself.
- Limit. David could say it here, but not under Absalom, and not after numbering the people. Only Christ held the claim to the end and heard, "This man has done nothing wrong."
- Friendship. Jonathan gave David his love and even his own claim to the throne — yet he stayed with his father, and died with him.